How Yesterday’s Conversation Led to This Entry

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with Frank DeMarco, as we usually do on Saturday mornings. I cannot recall how we began talking about the difference between thinking and absorbing, but the concept stayed with me and led to writing this morning.

First we talked about my blog entry titled The Project: Part One which Frank accurately perceived didn’t have much energy in it. It seemed more like an “I have to do this” entry and it was true. I had written it days ago, rewrote it many times (as I usually do) and, when I was about to post it, I deleted half of it and then clicked post. I had missed explaining why this project has taken hold of my life.

What is the essence of the project? Beginning about thirty-five years ago I realized this obsession with wanting to know how we got here, why we are here, and what happens when we die. Thus began my search which led to compulsive reading and taking notes. And, believe it or not, at least for me, I feel as if I found answers that satisfy two of the questions. Reluctantly I admit that I don’t think it’s possible to know exactly how we got here.

Now, maybe I’m being naïve but I believe the answers are very simple: We are here to evolve though the levels of consciousness based on the choices we make. And when we die on earth, we continue living at another frequency level. Everything is part of the Life Force and the Golden Rule answers how we should be.

“The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one would want to be treated by them. It is sometimes called an ethics of reciprocity.” (Definition from Wikipedia)

From the Kabbalah: We are born with a desire to receive for ourself which leads to the development of the ego. From there we progress through the following stages: the desire to give but to receive something in return; the desire to give without receiving something in return; and the desire to receive in order to give pleasure to the giver.

In Dustin Diperna’s book Evolution’s Ally: Our World’s Religious Traditions as Conveyor Belts of Transformation, based on the work of Ken Wilber, Diperna states that consciousness “does indeed move from levels of less complexity to more complexity regardless of culture or geographic location”, and he lists the levels as follows: Magic, Mythic, Rational, Pluralistic, and Integral.

So, now having read and studied enough to have two of my three questions answered, I realized another one: why is the majority of the world’s population still at the mythic level of consciousness even though Homo Sapiens have been the only remaining hominoid species for about 15,000 years? Of course, I’m aware that at the level of pure consciousness, meaning subject without an object, there is no time…but still!

Returning to the first paragraph and our conversation: At the rational level of consciousness thinking is primary. At the pluralistic and integral levels, the heart is primary which is when, in my opinion, the Golden Rule is absorbed or we receive in order to give pleasure to the giver.

And that brings me to Ken Wilber’s novel Boomeritis and Jacob Needleman’s book Why Can’t We Be Good? Here’s my answer: At the rational thinking level we function from the ego. We think we know and, if only those at the mythical level would realize how wrong they are, there would be more love in the world. But, at the integral level we function from the heart with the deepest understanding that we are all one at different levels. We have lived in all the levels; we know them. Here on earth it takes time and often suffering to move from one level of consciousness to another.

We are all on the hero’s journey. We may not know how we got here, but intuitively we know why we are here and what happens when we die. I truly believe that understanding Newton’s third law of motion would help: “If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions.” In other words, we are all egoistically inclined. We may wonder, why should I observe the Golden Rule if my neighbor doesn’t? A higher Third Force is needed, and that Third Force has many names: Consciousness, All That Is, Ein sof, God.

Tags: Consciousness, philosophy, psychology, spirituality